


Tea Party

by Solanyxe



Category: Free!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Alice in Wonderland, Crossover, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-25
Updated: 2013-12-25
Packaged: 2018-01-06 02:42:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1101429
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Solanyxe/pseuds/Solanyxe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Some kind of crossover with Alice in Wonderland, but not really.<br/>The tea party is going on. Welcome, take your seat. Pick your cup, pick your tea, and enjoy. Biscuits, anyone?</p><p>Happy holidays!</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tea Party

**Author's Note:**

> This was supposed to be a short, silly piece of 500 words, but I was tricked. Now it's a silly piece of 5000 words.  
> Rated teen for concepts and hints that might be confusing for a child.  
> I had a major incident with formatting, so I hope it's all right now.  
> I'd apologize for any mistakes, any possible OOCness, and so on, but it's Christmas so I won't. That's my gift to myself.  
> Italics for Haru's inner monologue and the occasional emphasis.

The top hat didn’t quite fit.  
In fact nothing seemed to fit; the bathtub in which he was sitting was too small, not to mention dry like the rest of the world.  
There were no pastries, no marmalade, and what was worse – there was no mackerel. It was to be expected since the entire pool was empty, well, not precisely empty, as there were tables and bathtubs and chinaware in it, and Nagisa and Makoto, but the point was that there was no water, and without water there were no fish. 

Sometimes Haruka pretended that the blue sky above was a pool, and that there were entire schools of mackerel to be had there, but nothing much happened, ever. One couldn’t fish in the sky, even less swim. Such was the reality. Instead of pastries and water and mackerel, there was sand. Sand and more sand. Sand extended all around the hollow pool. As far as his eyes reached, there was nothing but boring yellow sand and one single tree.  
The tree featured cats of many colors instead of leaves, and each time Haruka would sneeze, one of them would fall down, grin with sharp, pointy teeth, and run away. Only their smiling set of teeth would remain, lingering in the air for a second or two longer.

“It’s Alice,” the March Hare would say then. “I’m sure Alice is thinking of you now.”

Each time Haruka’s heart would decide to go faster for a beat or two.  
Indeed the cat’s smile seemed vaguely familiar, and someone important was thinking about him, which was surprising and even strangely _exciting_ , but then Haruka remembered that he knew neither the cats nor Alice. The March Hare was merely afflicted by his March madness. Life was boring. There was nothing to do.  
Of course, sometimes Haruka wished to put the hat down and leave, but then what? What would he do afterwards? What would be the point of that, precisely?  
He was waiting, waiting for something, or rather for _someone_.

The Dormouse was sleeping after sharing many pieces of advice (something like thirty-one should be the correct number, but Haruka hadn’t bothered counting so he wasn’t entirely sure), and the March Hare was having fun with his spinning teacup, as usual. Just as usual, Haruka was watching his tea without much thought. As he had given up a long time ago on trying to swim in it, there was not much reason to think anymore, either. One day was a bland as the other. The tea party went on.

“It was more fun when Alice-chan was here. And when Rei-chan was.” Nagisa sighed and spun his cup again. “Let’s form a swimming club again, shall we?”

“I don’t want to. There is no water here,” Haruka said. He couldn’t find the teapot with fine green tea, so he took the one with barley, and poured.  
With the exception of tea, there was no water anywhere near, and for certain neither were Alice and Rei. In all honesty, Haruka was pretty sure the two had never existed, but he supposed one should be kind enough and ignore the Hare’s ravings.  
Why bother talking?  
The Hare wouldn’t suddenly regain his sanity if Haruka voiced his opinion. As neither pointing out the truth nor keeping silent would make the world any different - or more interesting, for that matter - was it not better to choose the option that required less effort? 

“Look, someone’s coming,” the March Hare said. 

Not that Haruka cared. Without water, what difference did it make?

“Look, look, I think it’s finally Alice,” Nagisa the Hare cried out.

_Alice?_

Haruka lifted his head.

There was a boy with hair up to his shoulders and a wide grin. The tufts of hair bore the color of dried rosebuds.

 _Ah, rose tea would be good now. But where to find it on the table?_  
If Haruka tried soaking Alice’s hair, it would not work, doubtlessly.  
 _Or would it?_  
He decided that, no, it would not make for a good infusion, but at the same time he was already imagining how the brilliant locks floated in the water and opened like just like rose tea. 

The boy was wearing an azure maid dress with ruffles and a white apron on top. If it by some chance Alice was not a maid, then he had apparently picked the wrong dress from his closet.

Alice said, “You’re just as I imagined you’d be.”

_Is he talking to me?_

“Are you Alice?” said the March Hare. “Yes, you’re Alice.”

“No, my name is Rin. Even if my name and clothes are girly, I’m a boy.”

“Yes, yes.” Nagisa lifted his teacup and put it down on the saucer again with a triumphant clang. “That’s what I said. Rin-rin is here. See, Haru-chan, I told you he’d come.”

“You said Alice,” said Haruka. 

The March Hare tapped one foot against the bottom of his bathtub. “It’s the same thing. Same thing. Now where’s Mako-chan? He should be here somewhere.”

Though Haruka tried to discern if Rin and Alice were indeed the same person, he noticed that instead of comparing two people he most likely didn’t know, he was trying to catch and absorb each detail of Rin’s face and body.

_How silly. Why do I bother?_

Haruka looked back into his tea. 

_It’s not rose tea._

“Rin-chan,” said the March Hare to Alice. “How nice. How nice to meet you. Nice to meet you again. I’m Nagisa. Still Nagisa.”

Rin didn’t pay attention to the Hare.

Without asking, he sat down on the brink of Haruka’s bathtub. _The insolence._ Not only that, Rin took his girly black shoes off and rested his feet on Haru’s thighs. 

“Hello,” Rin said, his eyes glittering in the sun.

Haruka frowned and looked the other way. Why couldn’t this kid pick his own bathtub? His own as in Rin’s, not Haruka’s. Was that so difficult?

“You’re Haru, aren’t you?” Rin leaned closer. His clothes rustled, his red hair tickled Haruka’s ear, and his smile somehow remained visible even if Haruka looked elsewhere. Like the smile of those cats. 

In the maid outfit, Rin looked relatively silly and non-relatively adorable, and that irked Haruka for some reason. 

“I’ve seen a white bunny,” Rin said. “One with glasses. He ran really fast, and I almost lost him on the way here.” He looked around. “Where is ‘here,’ by the way? Everything is so weird.”

Haruka didn’t bother replying.

“Here?” Nagisa the Hare said. “Well, that is…that is a bit…”

Rin didn’t wait for the answer. “Anyway, the bunny told me to come to the castle, where the Queen of Hearts is having a muscle appreciation competition. Do you know anything about that?”

“I’m not interested in competitions,” Haruka said, feeling more and more irritated as Rin’s knees bobbed. 

_And has this Rin just labeled my pool as weird?_

 

“Well, I can’t join, either,” Rin said. “I’m going to be an Olympic swimmer, so I don’t have time for such things.” He lifted the hem of his skirt, revealing a pair of short swimming trunks in black and red. He stretched one leg right in front of Haruka’s face, obstructing all other sight. “See? I’m a swimmer. It’s fun, and I’m great at it. Where do you swim here?”

“Pretty much nowhere,” Haruka said. His fingers were clutching the teacup, and the teacup was shaking. He couldn’t see it, but he felt it, because his hand was shaking with it.  
Although underneath this boring grey tuxedo Haruka was wearing his swimming gear, too, he would rather cut his tongue than admit it. 

“So annoying,” Haruka whispered. 

Uncaring of those words, Rin finally sat in a normal position again, covering his thighs with the azure skirt. No, it was not a normal position, as there was nothing normal about anyone sitting on the brink of Haruka’s tub. 

“Don’t you have cookies here?” Rin pulled the closest plates toward himself, but they were, as such things normally went, empty. “Aren’t you supposed to have cookies and stuff if you’re having a tea party? You are having a tea party, right?”

_What a busybody. Almost as bad as the Dormouse, and louder._

“We’ve had cookies yesterday,” Haruka said, releasing the handle of his cup, “and we’ll have them tomorrow. But not today.” 

“Why not today?” Rin placed his right hand around Haruka’s shoulders. 

Haruka squeezed his lips at the touch. It was mightily annoying that it wasn’t annoying at all. “Because today is not yesterday, and it’s not tomorrow, either,” he said. 

Rin blinked and tilted his head, and Haruka opted for silence.

_Can’t Rin follow simple logic?_

“You need some cookies today, too, you know,” Rin said, “because if you only have cookies yesterday and tomorrow, you might not have cookies at all.” Laughing, he added, “And that’s horrible. Then you’ll never have cookies, and I’ll never have cookies with you.”

 _‘Never, never,’_ echoed in Haruka’s head. _‘I’ll never swim with you again.’_

 _Where does it come from? And why does it hurt?_  
Truthfully the words pained him as if someone had smashed all the teapots in the world against his head.  
 _What is it?_

“Oh, forget that, Rin-rin,” said Nagisa, pulling a small bunch of musty cookies from his pockets. He put them on the table. “Here. Cookies for you. Now tell me more about the white rabbit. He must have been Rei-chan.” Nagisa’s long ears were twitching with excitement. “By any chance, did he say that anything was beautiful? Or the contrary?”

“Yes,” said Rin. As Haruka anticipated, Rin made no attempt to take a single cookie. 

_All this fuss about cookies today and tomorrow, and then he doesn’t even want them. Why are people so bothersome? And why does it still hurt?_

“Well,” Rin said, “the white rabbit said that his movements were not beautiful when he was in a hurry. But he was in a hurry all the time. He also wanted to see Haru’s swimming because that was one of the most beautiful things in the world, or so he told me.”

“Rei-chan.” Nagisa’s big, pinkish eyes were brimming with tears. “That was undoubtedly Rei-chan. Why hasn’t he come yet? It’s so boring without him. So devastatingly tedious, and Haru-chan and Mako-chan have yet to learn how to be entertaining.”

“Don’t add chan to my name,” Haruka said. He would try to think what the white rabbit’s face looked like – now if only his mind had not remained stuck on reddish hair in water.

_There should be a teapot with rose infusion on the table…_

Rin shrugged his shoulders. “I’m sure this Rei-chan will come by sooner or later.” He snatched a clean cup (Haruka never understood how there were any left in the endless tea party, but likely the Dormouse was cleaning them when they were sleeping and he was awake, even if Haruka had never noticed – it was something Makoto would do). Rin took the nearest teapot as well. “What are you having?” he said.

“No, wait, I think that’s…” said Nagisa, extending his arms.

Rin poured the tea, but nothing came out, of course. Nothing except a soft tumbling noise. 

“What is this?” said a squeaky voice. “You should be more careful when you move people’s beds around.”

“What?” Rin said, pressing his ear to the teapot. “Did the tea inside speak?” 

As he moved the lid, the sleepy Dormouse peered outside. “Could you help me out if you may? On the table if you please.” 

“It’s a teapot, not a bed,” said Rin, but plucked the Dormouse nevertheless and placed it on the table. 

While stretching and yawning, the Dormouse enlarged, changed shape, and turned into Makoto again. 

_Well, as long as he won’t keep telling me what to do, that’s all right, I suppose. Maybe Makoto will even entertain this Alice maid, and I’ll have some freedom to myself again._

“Nice to meet you, Alice,” said Makoto, sitting on the table and rearranging the towers of dirty teacups around him. “Wait, I see you already have a cup, and we should have a few proper biscuits and scones left here. Somewhere. Wait.” He looked into each teacup, teapot, and sugar bowl. “Haru, why haven’t you offered anything to our guest?” In whispers, he added, “Alice, you’ll have to forgive Haru-chan. He’s a bit mad because of his hat, so he lacks manners sometimes.” Makoto sighed. “And reason.”

“Stop adding chan to my name,” said Haruka. 

“I’m Rin, actually,” said Rin, “not Alice.”

“Yes, yes,” said Makoto. “So much work, always so much work. That’s what happens when you have younger siblings, and friends. You can work all day and never keep up.” He curled up on the table and changed back into the tiny Dormouse.

Haru picked him up and gently laid the tiny creature back inside the empty teapot. Soon a light snoring became audible.  
Per nature dormice were diligent and friendly, but being diligent and friendly was hard work, so Haruka was rather glad he could leave that work to someone else, at least some of the time. 

“You guys sure are weird,” Rin said and laughed. 

_Look who is talking._

“Why are you Alice?” said Haruka. He needed to know. 

“No, I’m Rin, haven’t you heard?” said Rin. “Rin, Rin, not Alice.”

“Yes, Rin-rin, just as I’ve said,” said the Nagisa. He pushed the musty cookies toward the boy. “Why don’t you try them now? They’re good.” His eyes were glinting with mischief. “They’re good, honestly. Now don’t you worry about our Dormouse. He’s a bit sleepy since he has been our caretaker for years. Psst, I think Haru-chan is difficult to take care of.”

“I’ve told you not to call me Haru-chan,” said Haruka. 

“Then there was that accident,” said Nagisa the Hare, “when poor Rei-chan put the Dormouse in the wrong teapot, and that’s how Mako-chan almost drowned in jasmine tea. It was sad, but also funny.” His whiskers trembled as he giggled. “You know what else was funny? When I tied teaspoons to Rei-chan’s whiskers. That was even funnier, actually. And that’s when Rei-chan left. I mean when he threw Mako-chan in jasmine tea, not when I tied his whiskers. He didn’t mind the thing with his whiskers that much, I think. Aaaand it’s been incredibly dull ever since. So dull it makes me mad sometimes.” He began ululating into the clear sky. “Rei-chaaan. Rei-chaaaaaan.” His head was bobbing back and forth.

Haruka let out a tiny inaudible sigh. (He had achieved mastery at those; now he could sigh without even opening his mouth.)

_March madness again._

“That’s terrible,” Rin said, playing with his own toes. 

It didn’t tickle Haruka’s thighs, not really, but it was intrusive all the same. Yet oddly enough, Haruka couldn’t think how to get rid of Alice…Rin. Normally Haruka would just leave, but… 

_This is my pool, so why should I leave?_  
 _See? I shouldn’t leave._

It sounded like a fairly sound reasoning, especially for someone mad, so Haruka let Rin sit close and smile and be bothersome. He even allowed this silly maid to sling one arm over Haruka’s shoulders again.  
It was all right, Haruka could ignore it.  
Only he couldn’t really. He only pretended to. 

Rin didn’t seem to care either way. With a smile on his lips he continued clinging on. 

_What a bother._

Rin’s actions were vexing, each one of them, but at the same time they also weren’t. Thus they were confusing, and because they were confusing, they were triply more vexing than any and every advice and nagging Haruka had received from the Dormouse and the March Hare. 

“But why do you have a caretaker, hm?” Rin said. He took Haruka’s cup with his free hand, and sipped from it. “Is this a rose inside?” he said. “Yes, it is.”

When Rin put the teacup down, there was truly a rosebud in the water.

“I like it,” said Rin, “it’s romantic, isn’t it?”

Haruka’s heart began acting weirdly. As if it had forgotten to pulsate for three entire seconds, and now it had to speed up to recuperate the lost beats, that kind of weird.  
He lifted the cup.  
Perhaps it wasn’t even his heart that was acting weirdly, but something else, some other part of his body, something tingling and throbbing, but it was weird without a doubt.  
Slowly and with great care he took a sip, minding not to touch the rosebud with his lips. It was just to confirm what kind of tea it was. Rin had drunk from the same cup – the fact crossed Haruka’s mind only now – and Haruka was currently resting his lips on the same white porcelain, on the same spot as Rin had done.  
It seemed wrong somehow. Embarrassing more than wrong, perhaps, since this was Haruka’s tea, and there was nothing wrong with drinking tea. Thus Haruka continued slurping. Accidentally he sucked the rosebud into his mouth, which forced him to fight both the blush and the cough. 

“Are you all right?” Rin said. 

Haruka turned his head away brusquely. 

_Don’t look at me like that. Don’t you dare laugh._

His tongue probed into the petals – quick, quick – rolled it twice in his mouth – quicker, quicker – and before Rin would notice what was happening, he gulped the entire flower down. If someone asked him why, Haruka would not be able to answer. The only thing he knew was that it was of outmost importance that Rin wouldn’t notice. That was the most important thing.

“But why would you need a caretaker?” Rin was leaning in and nearly resting his head on Haruka’s shoulder. 

_Bother, bother._

“Can’t you take care of yourselves?”said Rin. “I ran all the way from Australia to here in order to build my muscles, and I didn’t need a caretaker for that. I run every day, actually. Without a caretaker.”

Again with that annoying, easy smile. 

_What is he smiling for? And why is he so close?_

Haruka caught himself looking at Rin. Therefore he made a point of swiftly fixing his gaze on the table, where the tea in his cup was common barley again. 

“I told you I’m going to be an Olympic swimmer, so now’s your turn,” Rin said, tapping with his feet on Haru’s thigh. “What is your dream?” 

Haru knitted his brow, unwilling to admit that he didn’t know. He was merely waiting without aim. Perhaps he should take up running, too. 

_If a maid can do it, so can I._

The March Hare began laughing then, and his laughter grew louder and louder, intermitted only with the occasional Rei-chan, Rei-chan.

 

Haruka opened his eyes. Immediately the dream world dissolved. 

It was their fault. It had happened solely because Nagisa had insisted on explaining how his sisters had forced him to watch Disney’s Alice in Wonderland thirty times, and then he had insisted on sharing that pain by explaining to everyone the story in way too much detail. 

“Shhhh,” Rei said. “Apologies, Haruka-sempai, did we wake you up?

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Kou whispered.

It was their fault. Haruka looked up. They were still awake and still noisy, and instead of Alice, now Nagisa was reenacting something else, equipped as he was with a red Christmas hat and a white beard. Kou sported a paper beard and a red hat, too. Rei still had whiskers drawn on his cheeks. 

It was a wonder they hadn’t woken up Makoto, as well, since he had been sleeping closer to them. Well, Makoto was used to the noise.

“Hn,” said Haruka and turned around under the kotatsu. He touched someone’s feet. His knees hit something.

In front of him, half-covered by the futon, Rin was dozing on the mat. For an instant Haru forgot where he was again.

Rin was here, dressed like a sane person - no frills and skirts – and sleeping. Hauka was also here, dressed like a sane person – no hats and tuxedos – and not sleeping.

That was normal. _Forget the dream._ The current state of things was perfectly normal, Haruka decided and thus remained as he was. He would have moved if Rin had been awake, and he would have tried to retain a most disinterested face, but right now, with Rin’s consciousness drifting somewhere else, the closeness was not so…overwhelming. There was no scrutiny, and no appearances to keep.

What time was it? 

They had been playing cards until midnight, and Rin had been narrowing the distance between them with each game, grinning and challenging Haruka, draping his arm over Haruka’s shoulders or over Haruka’s back, and then at some point they must have fallen asleep. 

Haruka couldn’t remember if he had ever seen Rin, the new, again cheerful Rin, sleep. Indeed Haru could keep watching and thinking _about it_ , about the peaceful face and the reddish hair, but instead he closed his eyes. That was better. If his eyes were closed, that would keep him _from_ watching and pondering for too long. He would fall asleep, too. 

 

Rin was sitting in his lap. The bathtub was too small. 

“Hey!” said Haruka.

“Haru,” Rin said, embracing Haruka with one arm. “Haru.” 

Now he had sharp, catlike teeth. His tiny maid dress could barely contain his body, and the fabric was torn and cracked at several places.  
Rin was, in fact, more naked than dressed.  
Haruka could see Rin’s naked ribs on the left side, and part of the belly below. As Rin moved like a startled, overgrown cat, and his dress covered less of him with each motion, Haruka could feel Rin’s weight shift, Rin’s body rub against him. On the right side of Rin’s chest, a nipple was poking out. Above it, the seams were undone from the collar to the sleeves, leaving Rin’s wide shoulders bare. 

“I can’t swim like this. Look,” said Rin. Under his skirt, there were no swimming trunks, nothing, only torn fishnet on skin. Not one hair on his legs and not one hair slightly above. “Look,” Rin said. “No, don’t look.” He sobbed. “I can’t swim.”

“Rin, calm down,” said Haruka. 

While the details eluded his memory, there was no doubt that Rin’s torn dress was Haruka’s doing somehow. Maybe not his doing (truly he couldn’t remember), but his responsibility for certain. It was his thing to watch and feel and tear into the fabric, just like with water – _aah, so that’s why the dress is azure_ – and sew it back together. He was a hatter after all. No. Hatters don’t make dresses, do they? I’ve never made a hat for Rin, even. Then why had Alice come to Haruka if he wasn’t a hatter?

_What am I?_

 

“I can’t swim like this,” Rin said and shook his head. “It’s over. I will never swim again.”

He scrambled out of the bathtub. 

Haruka tried to stop him, but the ribbon he had managed to grasp remained in his hand. 

“I will never swim with you again,” Rin said, his sobs turning into wailing. He ran away. 

Haruka would cry if he could, but that was the thing; he couldn’t, he never could because the pool was empty. It had been empty for an eternity. There was no water, and one needed water first to get tears later.  
The rose Haruka had swallowed was forcing him into hiccups. His body moved on its own.  
Bidden by some illogical reasoning (as it was only proper for his condition), he got up and stepped out of his bathtub. He threw the top hat from his head. As quickly as he could, Haruka then undressed his tuxedo, and already he was climbing out of the empty pool, already he was running cross the hot sand. 

Rin was always faster. _He shouldn’t be. He shouldn’t be. Why am I chasing after him? He should be chasing after me._

Thus Haruka started running even more frantically. Meanwhile Rin stopped at some point ahead, in front of the tree. No, it was a mushroom, not a tree. 

The Samezuka’s captain was sitting on it and talking; it was too far for Haruka to understand the words, and so he sped up get closer.  
Rin was trying to climb atop the mushroom, but he kept falling down the slippery, slimy cap. The Knave of Hearts, that Samezuka guy with grey hair, was trying to help, but Rin kept falling nevertheless.

_What is he doing?_

“Rin!” Haruka screamed. 

Rin fell once more. Barefoot, he kicked the mushroom stem.

“Rin!”cried Haruka. 

_Why doesn’t he hear?_

“Rin!”

_Why doesn’t he turn his head?_

Shoulders quivering, Rin hung his hand. 

At the top of his lungs, Haru yelled, “I’m coming with you.”He was dashing forward, but the distance between them remained the same. “I’ll be an Olympic swimmer with you. Riiiiiiiiin. I’m coming with you.”

Rin took a morsel of the mushroom cap and put it into his mouth. 

They were closer now, he and Rin.  
Wrong.  
They weren’t closer. Rin was only becoming larger and larger. His head was shooting up into the sky. He was still crying. The tears were giant spheres of water, falling, striking the sand, and exploding. In the time Haruka needed to blink, the tears had flooded the pool, the mushroom, and all the sand. Everywhere he looked, wild currents were winding. The water level was rising. 

“Rin, I told you not to cry anymore,” Haruka yelled. Rin did not appear to hear. 

“Haru,” someone said. 

Makoto was there, stretching one arm toward him. He was sitting in a teapot with Nagisa and Rei, who were both rowing with giant silver teaspoons. 

“I’ve got you,” Makoto said. “Just give me your hand.”

“Haruka-sempai,” Rei said and offered his hand, too. “I know why you swim.”

Their hands clasped, and Makoto and Rei pulled him up. 

“Haru-chan, are you all right?” said Nagisa. 

 

Crouching on the porcelain, Haruka glanced around. The water was up to Rin’s neck now. 

“Rin,” Haruka cried again. He stood up, balanced himself on the teapot’s spout, and dived into the water. 

“Haru,” people called behind him. 

“Rin,” he called to the person in front of him. “Rin.”

Only then Rin noticed him. 

“Will you laugh at me?” said Rin. “Then laugh.”

“Idiot,” said Haru, swimming with all his might. “Have you ever seen me laugh?”

At that Rin seemed to ponder. “I think I haven’t. But I don’t know how to stop this,” he said. 

“Then don’t,” said Haruka, spitting salty water from his mouth. “Just don’t say you won’t swim again. Just don’t leave again. I’ll come with you. Where you swim so will I. Do you hear?”

Rin made a nod with his giant head, and there were rosebuds hanging from the tips of his locks, rosebuds soaking in the water.  
The closer Haruka arrived to Rin, the smaller Rin became. Now they were of the same size. The waters were not as turbid anymore. 

Almost like fragile, flimsy snowflakes, petals began twirling and falling from the sky. Pink roses? Cherry blossoms? From the tree with cats, cherry petals were falling. Once the petals touched the sea, the currents carried them away like weightless boats. Haruka grabbed onto one and climbed up. It should be big enough to support two.

The boat floated toward Rin on its own, and Haruka pulled him onto the petal.

They sat, breathing heavily. 

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Rin. 

Both of them were in their swimwear now. 

“Me neither,” Haruka said. It wasn’t true, because he had seen it before, somewhere, though he couldn’t remember where. He knew only that he had seen it with Rin.

Beside him, Rin was grinning with serenity and aplomb, like that boy who had came to him in an azure maid dress and interrupted the endless tea party. 

“Look, Nanase,” said Rin, “a rainbow.”

The cat tree was looming far above them, only no cat was sitting on its boughs, and the blossoms were gone, too. It was green like a Christmas tree and boasting with colorful, blinking lights. 

“It’s like a real rainbow, isn’t it? I like it, Haru,” said Rin, his red eyes sparkling. “I like you.”

Haruka didn’t know how to respond. No, that was not true. 

“I…” said Haruka. 

Yet Rin was already embracing him, and then, when Haruka tried to speak again, their lips touched. As if he couldn’t quite feel the touch, like a wind without proper substance caressing Haruka’s lips, like a ghost, so came the kiss. Yet at the same time Haruka did feel it; he could sense it everywhere in his body. 

“I like you,” said Rin once more. 

The rest was blurry. 

 

 _What was that?_

In the darkness the silence offered no answer.  
Rin must have rolled around in his sleep, since now he was showing not his face but his back. Nagisa and Rei were overtaken by slumber, too, or so it seemed. Makoto was mumbling something in his dreams. Kou was closer to Rin and covered with a blanket. 

Haruka took a glass of tea from the table. Slowly he drank in the night.  
Rin had brought some Christmas blend earlier, and his little sister had wanted to prepare it no matter what, even though she hadn’t been able to find the cups in Haruka’s kitchen. 

_Ridiculous dreams._

Lying down again, Haruka turned to the other side, away from Rin. He inched closer to Rin, though, so their backs touched, so he could feel the heat emanating from Rin’s body. From his feet to his stomach, Haruka had already been warm under the kotatsu, and now his back and his cheeks were hot, too. Though he was not agitated, he felt that something deep inside him was shaking and moving and dancing, as if borne on the waves from the dream. He shut his eyes. Was it not enough to have Rin again, to see him from time to time, and swim with him?

_What else do I want?_

There were things he’d need to address very, very soon.

**Author's Note:**

> I was going back and forth between sencha (or even gyokuro) & mugicha and green tea & barley tea. I also spent too much time deciding which version of Hepburn I want to use. 
> 
> BTW, "muscle appreciation contest" is not a mistake. The contest does not consist of trying to find out who has the best muscles, but who appreciates the aesthetics of muscles more. The Queen of Hearts wins each time. 
> 
> Roses, roses - there was this official Free! (Christmas?) group image where Rin and Haru were both carrying roses as presents, Rin a bouquet and Haru one single rose, so it was inevitable for me to include roses somehow. Also, I keep imagining Rin as Princess Serenity and Haru as Endymion.  
> Haru as Tuxedo Mask got his rose from Rin, just like it happened between Mamoru and Usagi in that Sailormoon R movie with Fiore. Makes perfect sense, doesn't it?  
> Of course, Rin didn't want to be too obvious so he gave Haru a rose of different color than his own bunch...  
> What, it doesn't make sense at all? Aw, come on, don't make Princess Rin cry!


End file.
